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April 9, 2023

Familiar dishes done very well explain the success of many a restaurant. That formula applies to Gia.

Published Apr 06, 2023  •  Last updated 2 days ago  •  5 minute read

Lamb ragu at cantina gia
Lamb ragu at Cantina Gia Photo by Peter Hum /jpg

Cantina Gia
749 Bank St., 613-569-0464, cantinagia.com
Open: Weekdays 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Prices: pasta dishes $16 to $27, mains $22 to $38
Access: One step to front door

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When I first tried Cantina Gia’s food, it was a slightly surreal, scarier time.

In late October 2020, the Italian restaurant in the Glebe had been open for just a few weeks, during a stretch when in-person dining was prohibited, while the first COVID-19 vaccinations were still weeks away. Committed to from-scratch cooking including house-made pastas and cured meats, Gia was doing as much as business as it could, selling sandwiches, pasta dishes and more to go through its massive windows looking onto Bank Street. I recall eating a very good porchetta sandwich at a nearby picnic table, wishing the weather was a little warmer.

I also recall anticipating eating inside Cantina Gia one day, in a dimly imagined future when the coronavirus would be brought to heel.

Almost two and a half years later, we had dinner inside the restaurant even while, I must say, the pandemic continues and too many friends tell me they have been recently infected or reinfected. We took our much-vaccinated selves to Gia for those overdue meals, and we were much pleased.

Gia has fulfilled the promise evident when it opened, especially given that the restaurateurs behind it, chef Adam Vettorel and his business partner Chris Schlesak, also run North & Navy, the upscale Italian restaurant in Centretown that has landed on several Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants lists.

While Gia’s first iteration as a take-out-only business was more modest, it has evolved into a top-notch neighbourhood restaurant, with dishes between $20 and $40 (the new, inflated mid-range of dining out) delivering undeniable satisfactions. That residents of the Glebe and beyond have embraced Gia would seem clear, given the crowds we saw and reservations we required, whether we visited for lunch, weekend brunch or dinner.

When cantina gia opened on oct. 2, 2020, people lined up outside as the new bank street restaurant promised free food to the first 10 customers.
When Cantina Gia opened on Oct. 2, 2020, people lined up outside as the new Bank Street restaurant promised free food to the first 10 customers. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

Familiar dishes done very well explain the success of many a restaurant. That formula applies to Gia. In an email this week, Vettorel confirmed that at Gia, popular pastas and starters are more or less fixtures, while other dishes are rotated in or tweaked with the availability of local produce.

We tried two always-available starters — Caesar salad and calamari  — and both felt close to definitive. The salad was fresh and generous, with an abundance of pancetta, croutons, savoury dressing and grated parmesan. (No dish garnished with cheese at Gia ever seemed lacking in that regard. Quite the contrary was always true.) Calamari were impeccably fried, and perhaps under-salted, served with a tangy lemony aioli.

| dining out: cantina gia opened in the glebe during dining lockdowns. Luckily for pasta-lovers, it survived and is thriving | 5

Caesar salad at Cantina Gia in the Glebe

Calamari at cantina gia
Calamari at Cantina Gia Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

Arancini of some kind are also always on the menu, and our dinner’s rice balls were as impressively crispy as the calamari, and also intriguingly flavoured, thanks to the addition of beet juice.

Beet-flavoured arancini at cantina gia
Beet-flavoured arancini at Cantina Gia Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

The last starter that we tried, grilled focaccia with mortadella, shaved butter with honey, took superior examples of ordinary ingredients and made something quite captivating.

Mortadella with shaved butter and honey on grilled focaccia at cantina gia
Mortadella with shaved butter and honey on grilled focaccia at Cantina Gia Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

I wrote two weeks ago while surveying Ottawa’s pasta-with-red-sauce options that one of Cantina Gia’s perennials, a simple spaghetti with tomato sauce, rubbed me the right way and even elicited nostalgic memories. I liked even more the marvelously eggy spaghetti carbonara, another menu stalwart. It tasted of luxury and indulgence, and thankfully not of cream, and was graced with chunks of pancetta that had become their best, crisp-chewy selves.

Spaghetti with pomodoro sauce at cantina gia in the glebe
Spaghetti with pomodoro sauce at Cantina Gia in the Glebe Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA
Spaghetti carbonara at cantina gia in the glebe
Spaghetti carbonara at Cantina Gia in the Glebe Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

A hearty, rosemary-flecked bowl of mafaldine (big, ribbon-y noodles) with mushrooms and shavings of parmesan was also a big hit. The ragu, made with slow-roasted lamb, struck us as good but not a wow. A stuffed pasta — ricotta-filled anolini with mosciami, a made-in-house dried tuna product, grated on top — was our solitary, notable letdown. It’s charms were perhaps too subtle for us, and it was also skimpily portioned.

Mafaldine with mushrooms at cantina gia in the glebe
Mafaldine with mushrooms at Cantina Gia in the Glebe Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA
Ricotta filled anolini with mosciami, an in-house dried tuna product grated on top, at cantina gia
Ricotta filled anolini with mosciami, an in-house dried tuna product grated on top, at Cantina Gia Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

We thought highly of two grilled-meat dishes we shared, namely a whole chicken and a flatiron steak.

The chicken, was nicely charred and juicy throughout. While the dish was billed as chicken diavola (“devilled” or spicy), we found its heat came more from hot sauce on the side than from its marinade.

Chicken diavola at cantina gia
Chicken diavola at Cantina Gia Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

The expertly grilled and sauced flatiron steak, completed with a massive dollop of salsa verde, was even better  — everything that a beef lover could ask for.

Flatiron steak at cantina gia in the glebe
Flatiron steak at Cantina Gia in the Glebe Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA
Grilled rapini with hazelnuts was a side dish ordered separately at cantina gia in the glebe
Grilled rapini with hazelnuts was a side dish ordered separately at Cantina Gia in the Glebe Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

Two desserts sent us home very happy. Skipping the always available tiramisu, we tried the torta tenerina, a flourless chocolate brownie topped with cherry mascarpone and Amarena cherries, and also the spiced apple brown butter cake, with a warm Italian brown butter sauce and vanilla gelato. Both were delights that combined homey comfort with elevated accents.

“torta tenerina,” a flourless chocolate brownie served with cherry mascarpone and amarena cherries, at cantina gia in the glebe
“Torta Tenerina,” a flourless chocolate brownie served with cherry mascarpone and Amarena cherries, at Cantina Gia in the Glebe Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA
Spiced apple brown butter cake, served with a warm italian brown butter sauce and vanilla gelato, at cantina gia in the glebe
Spiced Apple Brown Butter Cake, served with a warm Italian brown butter sauce and vanilla gelato, at Cantina Gia in the Glebe Photo by Peter Hum /POSTMEDIA

Gia is a narrow, handsome space.  Most guests sit at tables beneath Ottawa artist’s Philip Crai’s sprawling mural of the Tuscan countryside. Along the other long wall is a well-stocked bar. For a quicker, more casual meal, I like sitting at the counter beside the window facing Bank Street. The most comfortable and private spot is the cushy table for four or more at the back, next to a large window looking into the kitchen.

At the bar, staff dispense smaller negronis, no worse for being pre-mixed and kept on tap, plus more crafted and expensive featured cocktails between $16 and $18 that rely on Italian spirits. We did not delve into Gia’s wine list. The fact that Gia has an adjoining bottle shop offering discerning, largely Italian choices makes me expect the same from the restaurant.

Service at Gia was always assured and on point. We appreciated that at our brunch visit, after our fine porchetta eggs benedict took too long to arrive, the cappuccino we had ordered was proactively taken off our our bill.

Over the last four decades, the space that’s now Gia has had other commendable and significant restaurant tenants. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was Chahaya Malaysia, which still operates in Ottawa’s east end. By the late 1990s, the first of Ottawa’s Fratelli’s restaurants had arrived, eventually employing Vettorel and Schlesak, coincidentally. In the latter 2010s, Pomeroy House was a fine restaurant that had too short a run.

Now, there’s Gia. Long may she reign.

phum@postmedia.com

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